… and I don't think his folks are looking real hard for him. In a long winded discussion the other day with a young zealous Calvinist on the topic of being born again as an unfaithful sinner, he was confronted with a question that was severely discomforting to him, so much so he called me a fool and refused to answer. Neo-Calvinists, particularly the internet active variety along with several hardshell Calvinists, generally subscribe to the unscriptural notion that God regenerates wicked men, raising them in newness of life, without any evidence of faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now anybody who has peeled the plastic wrapper off a bible and cracked it's spine can discover that we rise in newness of life after having been buried by baptism in Christ (Rom 6:4). We know that our spiritual life in Christ is by faith. We know that all the blessings of being a child of God, yes, even being the child, is by faith (Rom 1:17, Rom 5:2, Gal 3:26). Peter and John proclaimed what it is that brings strength and by implication a new life, that being gained through faith in His name (Acts 3:16)… I asked …
Is it your position you were buried by baptism in Christ as an unbeliever?
I was called a fool. Some things never change and that is most certainly true of His Holy Word …
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Ro 6:3-4 AV)
4 comments:
Good question to pose.
Interesting how Calvinists make such an issue of "regeneration" and many insist that regeneration precedes the ability to believe and repent...
But does their alleged "regeneration" actually result in the new life that the term implies? How different from their old life is the new life that they claim to have been born into?
In God's purposes death precedes life.
Before we can be raised into that "newness of life" a dying to the old life is required.
bossman, I thought the question went to the heart of the matter regarding when the work of the Spirit is accomplished with regard to rising in newness of life... I still have not received a reply.
Onesimus,
I have encountered a few Reformed who tend to argue for multiple regenerations with the notion that regeneration is dependent on how we define the term and apply it to scripture. In my view that is silly. Regenerate means to re-create and how some can dance around this is baffling.
Fletcher's apology against antinomian doctrines somewhat addresses the idea of the "old man" continuing in the absence of Holiness.
Your last statement goes right to the heart of the matter. There can be no rising in newness of life without dying to Christ and burying that old man and I do not believe that is possible absent faith.
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